Monroe family, friends hope to hear from missing officer

Port Authority police officer Walter A. McNeil is a veteran of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, so when he called his wife last Tuesday morning, she knew where he was going.

"He asked me if I was looking at the news, and he told me he wouldn't be home for a while," said Sonia McNeil of Middle Smithfield Township. "I said, "I know, just be careful, Mac."'

The World Trade Center was in flames and he was on his way to help. That was the last time they spoke.

A week has passed, but Sonia McNeil and her son, Walter Jr., a 10th-grade student in the East Stroudsburg

School District, have not given up. She jumps whenever the phone rings, but each update is the same -- no news of Mac.

"Half my heart is missing," she said. "But I do have hope."

Walter McNeil, 53, is among the more than 5,000 people missing after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A retired National Guard first sergeant who spent more than nine months in the Persian Gulf, he planned to retire from the Port Authority next year.

The McNeil home sports yellow ribbons on every large tree and several American flags, as does the home of neighbor Liz Drummond.

"Mac is loved by a lot of people," said Drummond, chatting outside the McNeil home with her neighbor. "He's just a great guy."

McNeil is among several Monroe County residents who are listed as missing from the attack. Thousands of county residents commute to the city every day.

The friends exchanged theories they hope might explain how McNeil could still be awaiting rescue.

"My neighbors have been very supportive," Sonia McNeil said. "I don't know what I would do without them." Drummond said that if there are people still alive in some subterranean space below the World Trade Center,